Since the mid 20th century, commentators have observed the move towards a knowledge economy or information society where the old rules of manufacturing-based business no longer apply, or at very least need to be reconsidered (Machlup 1962; Drucker, 1969; Lyotard, 1984).
In his analysis, it is the “gatekeepers” (art dealers, agents, managers, publishers) who “decide whether the prospective value of [an artist’s] creative output warrants the cost of humdrum inputs needed to place it before final buyers”.
[7] Today, with the onset of Long Tail economics, Caves’ division of labor might be seen as increasingly irrelevant: the artist can take his/her product direct to market via the Internet and is no longer dependent on a third party to negotiate access; thus his/her entrepreneurial and business abilities are ever more crucial.
The policy consultant and author, John Howkins, observes how the French economist and journalist, Jean-Baptiste Say, coined the term ‘entrepreneur’ in the late Eighteenth Century to describe a person who unlocks capital tied up in land and redirects it.
Figures show that only a handful of self-employed creatives in the UK have gone on to start a company or employ other people - the US, by contrast, has a relatively high number of business start-ups.